Thread: Polishing Synthetic Scales

Believe it or not I have had a heck of a time trying to polish synthetic scales. I tried, Maas, Flitz, Simichrome, and Eagle one. All put a nice shine on the scales but not good enough, if you know what I mean. Then I remembered, I had a convertible with a rear plastic window and would use Maguires plastic cleaner and Maguires plastic polish. I tried it on some scales and I got what I was looking for.

Sacles that look new. The cleaner will remove minor scratches and actually give the scales a nice shine. The polish does the trick.

They sell a combination Maguires but I never used it. I use the seperate bottles. Maguries Plastic Cleaner, Maguires Plastic Polish. A little hard to find. Pep Boys is a good try but I ordered it directly from Maguires on-line. You would work this stuff just like polishing a car. Put it on and keep rubbing until it's used up.

You don't put it on and ten wipe it off. You clean or polish to a shine. It is a little expensive at $8.99 a bottle for each, but with the size of scales I'll never have to buy anything else.
Vince

Great tip, Vince, but it was pretty hard to find the way you spelled it. I finally found the web site:

http://www.meguiars.com/

I also found this spot...

http://www.properautocare.com/meg1708.html

Thanks for the tip Vince. I actually have both that I use on an annual basis to take the oxidation off my headlights and give them a nice finish.

Excellent info, I rarely polish celluloid / plastic scales coz if they are tatty I bin them. Why I didn't think of using the same stuff I polish my fountain pens with beats me .
Oh and I use Meguiars doh !!!! It is perfect for boat plexi windows, motorcyle fairings etc..

Gary

I cheat...I use a loose muslin buff with Dico plastic, or White Diamond, polish.

Joe, I wouldn't call that cheating. It's whatever works best. Hell I didn't own flap wheels and a decent sander until I got advice on SRP.

Gary

I know I'm a bad speller, partly because I just not that smart and partly because of today's lifestyle. Everything is rush, rush, rush. That is partly why I love straight razor shaving so much. I take my mini vacation every day. Go in the bathroom and close the door.

Nice hot shower, and a great straight razor shave. Then I'm all ready to screw it up all over again.

Vince

Vince...

I wasn't trying to pick on your spelling. Sorry if it came off that way. Heck, without a spell checker, I'd really be in bad shape. The one that this thread editor uses works OK most of the time. It's that little symbol up at the top right corner that has the check mark with ABC in the cradle.

More important than any spelling is the tip you provided. I have ordered some of that stuff, myself. I'll just put a bit on my buffer, though. On a much lesser scale, a rotary tool with the chamois wheel attachment might work pretty good with that stuff. Joe has it down, too.

Bill, no apoligy is necessary, where did you say that spell check botton was? Just kidding. Anyway, to have you to try one of my ideas is an honor. You have taught me so much through your CD and this website.

Anyway, thats one of the problems I've been having. When you polish synthetic scales using a dremel, you have to be careful not to heat up the scales, then they're shot. You only have to use a very small amount, say a drop from a Q Tip,
and then rub with a polishing cloth.

The scales are so small, 5 or 6 good rubs for each scale and that should do it. This stuff works.

Thanks for trying one of my ideas and don't curse me when your on the work bench rubbing for two hours.

Vince

For those of you that use lexan, plexiglass, or maybe even normal celluloid in scalemaking, I have a suggestion. It's called vapor polishing, and it can take a scratched up lexan surface and turn it literally clear. Not well polished, optically clear. The process uses a chemical vapor to melt the outer boundaries of the plastic in vapor. Think of how a candle looks when you melt a bit of it with a lighter.

Anyway, I used to send pieces for this treatment when I was doing some machine design. It is used heavily in medical parts treatments. You can look up local places that do it. And, while they likely wouldn't want to do one razor (cost prohibitive, you could bring down a big stack of scales at a time. You MAY even be able to add a bunch of razors with dull scales to see if it does the trip.

A couple places that offers it as a service are shown here. I just googled em. No connection to them.

http://www.arrowcryogenics.com/vaporpolishing.htm
http://www.alphamco.com/vp.htm

Anyway, it makes things look very sharp. good luck - John

Warning; I am not a chemical engineer. Use this method at your own risk.